i8 9 6. NOTES AND COMMENTS. i 5 



part, of diagnoses of plants possessing no economic value and of 

 purely botanical interest. Some two years since, when the Bulletin — 

 which, it must be remembered, is issued by the Stationery Office — 

 was threatened with extinction, The Times stated that its publication 

 was " one of the most useful functions discharged by the Royal 

 Gardens." We should ourselves be sorry to estimate Kew at so low 

 a value as is implied by this statement, but there can be no doubt that 

 since the Bulletin has taken to publishing diagnoses of new species, 

 it has become of greater interest to the systematic botanist. 



We are, however, at a loss to understand for whose benefit the 

 last number of the Bulletin has been issued. It is certain that science 

 cannot be the gainer by the bringing together of such names as 

 " Odontoglossum Imperatrice de Russie," "Masdevallia Mary Ames," 

 " Lselio-Cattleya Hon. Mrs. Astor," and " Cypripedium Madame 

 Jules Hye " — to select only one or two examples of names which may 

 be counted by dozens. The introductory note tells us that these lists 

 are " indispensable to the maintenance of a correct nomenclature " 

 and to "smaller botanical establishments"; yet the enumeration, 

 which might easily have been completed by the first week of January, 

 and issued as soon as finished, is not sent out until November. Nor 

 is this all : the contents are as useless from a horticultural as they are 

 from a botanical standpoint. What, for instance, does the student 

 gain by the knowledge that Tylophovopsis is " a new genus of no 

 horticultural interest ? " If the Stationery Office chooses to compete 

 with the scientific journals which are carried on at private expense, 

 or with the various learned societies which devote themselves to the 

 publication of scientific papers, it is of course at liberty to do so. But 

 the public has a right to demand that its publications should be at 

 least up to the level of usefulness secured by works that are not 

 subsidised by Government. 



European Elephants. 

 An important and interesting find of remains of Elephas has been 

 made at Tilloux, near the station of Gensac-la-Pallue, France. The 

 remains consist chiefly of tusks and teeth of animals of great 

 size — the largest tusk recovered measuring 2 metres 85 centi- 

 metres in length, and being almost straight. The teeth are 

 identified as those of E. meyidionalis, E. antiquits, and E. primigenius, and 

 figures of all are given in L' Anthropologic (vol. vi., no. 5) for October. 

 Associated with the remains were those of Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, 

 Cervus, and Bison prisats, and numerous flint implements belonging to 

 Mortillet's " Chelleen " and " Mousterien " ages. One of these imple- 

 ments, a " striker," was found underneath a tusk, to which it adhered. 

 Three of the implements are apparently made from the same flint, and 

 are identically similar in every character but form. There is, there- 

 fore, no reasonable doubt as to the contemporaneity of the remains 

 and the tools. 



